INTRODUCTION: Standard therapy for acute asthma attack includes beta 2 agonists, O2 and systemic corticosteroids. Although there is widespread usage of this therapy protocol in recent years, as some of the children still need hospitalization because of incomplete responses, adjunctive therapy measures should be considered. We planned this study protocol to assess the effect of ipratropium bromide (IB) for moderate and severe childhood asthma attacks.

METHODS: All of the consecutive 50 children admitted to the Pediatric Emergency Service of İstanbul University Cerrahpaşa Medicine Faculty were included in our study. All patients received short duration β2-adrenergic agonists and metilprednisolone consistent with current practice guidelines, then they were randomized into two groups. While the first group received IB (250 µg/dosage) 3 times with 20 minutes of intervals, the second group received serum physiologic. Before each therapy regimen and at the 72nd hour, clinical asthma scores (CAS) and peak expiratory flow rates (PEF) of the patients were screened and their hospitalization status was recordedRESULTS: There was not any significant difference in the hospitalization status of the two groups which included patients aged 3 to 18 years. Clinical asthma scores and PEFR of the first and second group of patients had a statistically significant difference beginning from the 40th minute.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In our study we reported that IB added to the standard therapy regimen of moderate and severe childhood asthma attacks was efficient and didnt have any adverse effect